:: D R. K E R S T I N K U N Z E ::

:: curriculum vitae :: research ::
:: sparetime :: other texts ::
:: pictures :: TRAVEL ::
:: brompton ::

impressum
contact
guestbook

:: TRAVEL USA::
:: HA - DEN :: DEN - SF :: SF - LA :: GC & LV :: LA - NOL :: NOL - CHI :: CHI - HA ::

15.02.02

At 7 am I left the hostel to get the bus to Oakland, where I would get on the train to Los Angeles. Also this bus driver was non-typically nice, slowly I got used with it:-) This time we took the lowel level of the bridge, so the view was not so nice.
In Oakland at the station it was written, that the coaststarlight express would not arrive at 8:30 am, but at around 11 am. So I had time to inspect the surrounding, a new shopping area at the seaside. But naturally the shops hadn't open so early in the morning. That's why I took a seat in the waiting room of the station. Shortly after I sit a lady came to me and we were speaking together. I was never called so many times "honey" and "sweetheart". So slowly I felt uncomfortably with the woman, but later I recognize, that she's calling everybody like this...
Few minutes past 11 am, the train is really arriving. The attendant at the first coach is telling me, that he's only taking passengers, who are not going the whole way to LA. The next said he only let 6 persons it. So first of all we are staying like stupid childrens in front of the train. But I learned, you never get on a train without be asked to. Finally the attendants spoke with each other and we could get on. I've got a seat next to a young man, who wanted to go to Missisippi and I was hoping not everybody will speak like this there, because I didn't understand him at all.
The train was passing excotic plants (palms, orange trees, cactuses, ...) and a lot of hills in california.

Oakland 39.20 KB	California 27.44 KB	Ghost town 34.75 KB
California 34.93 KB	California 29.57 KB	California 29.74 KB

Instead of reducing the delay, the train even get another hour behind the schedule. But nobody is getting angry, even those who want to get a connection train in Los Angeles to the east. Amtrak garanteed the connection, so they put the passengers in San Luis Obispo, 200 miles far of LA, in busses and drove them the rest of the way, because it's faster via the highway, than via the tracks along the coast line. In that way I'm loosing my travel partner, but I was not sad about. I could easy calculate, that we will reach due to the 4 hour delay the union station in Los Angeles at 1 am, to late (or early;-) to find a hostel. So I use the time on the train to get some sleep. Shorlty after midnight the attendant starts to wake up everybody, so we reduced our delay a few minutes, but outside it's too dark to see anything.
I had nowhere to go, so I stayed the rest of the night in the big waiting hall. I slept well in the train, so first I could not sleep anymore and was reading. But reading, even an interesting travel guide makes you sleep;-) Every two hours a security sherrif is checking the tickets. Everybody seems to know the procedure, nobody had to leave the station. Even though I was wondering a little bit, because my ticket was valid for the next evening, so why should I already be at the station the night before?

16.02.02

At 6 am the station got busy, even it was saturday. Additionaly the smell of fresh coffee is hanging in the station. So it was not possible to sleep anymore. Therefore I went to downtown to the tourist information. Like the sunday in Denver it was quiet empty in town.
Los Angeles has a nice combination of small parks and scyscrapers. But except me, only homeless people were on the street and those were greating me all friendly, I hope, they didn't thought I'm one of them due to my big backpack. At the end I found the tourist information, but it was closed the whole weekend.

Union Station
40.17 KB

In fact instead of staying over night in the union station I wanted to sleep in Hollywood. So I decided to let my backpack in the station and taking a metro to Hollywood. I hadn't saw any locker in the station before, but maybe I was blind. So I ask at the Amtrak counter and after ensuring, that I'm an Amtrak customer, the man told me, that I could leave my luggage at the counter for checked luggage. But I had bad luck. They told me on this weekend they couldn't take any luggage, because of any high security reasons. What exaclty, they didn't know. So I had no chance than carrying my backpack for the rest of the day, because I wanted to get the train to Flagstaff in the evening.
The train to Hollywood tooks a quarter of an hour and leaving the station I saw the first time a crowd of tourists. The station was direct in front of the chinese man theater and everybody had to make a photo of it. Going few hundreds meters far away I was alone again. Walking along the walk of fame I recognize, that my knowledge is not so big, I only know few of the persons. I walked the whole boulevard and was a little bit dissapointed. I expect much more than only tourist shops, sex shops, electronic shops, some strange museums and again tourist shops. The only interesting thing would have been for me to walk to the Hollywood letters, but I supposed, that it was to less time for me to walk there and back with my backpack, getting the train a 6 pm.

Walk of Fame 67.97 KB	Chines Man Theatre 32.93 KB	Walk of Fame 47.82 KB
Hollywood 37.72 KB

So I walked the boulevard back again and was prepared to be bored the next 6 hours before traking the train. I left the metro before union station and went in one of the nice parks enjoying the sun. But I was lucky. At early afternoon I saw, that a parade was prepared. One week after the chinese new year Los Angeles was celebrating. I found a nice seat on a wall in the sun and could see a mixture of chinese dragons and american tradition of "drill and music bands". Some scene I only knew from the TV before. In one of the first cars the major was sitting, accompanied by two police men on bycicles and a bodyguard jogging behind the car. The major, like the sheriff later on, was waving and the people around were shouting and cheering for him. Even the congressman and -woman were participating.

Parade 49.97 KB	Parade 58.05 KB	Parade 43.33 KB
Parade 52.52 KB

After the parade everybody was going to the Olvera Street close to the union station. Here you can find an old quarter with mexican tradition and a lot of nice food to buy, Taccos, Tacitos. Enchiladas etc. I met a person who speaks even less english like me. I was ordering the first combination of his card. And was repeating after the question "Which number do you want" alsways "the first one" until I recognize, that he only knows the word one and not first...
Then it was already time to go to the station to get my train. But before I try to organize my tour to the Grand Canyon. First of all I phoned the hostel in Flagstaff, but they told me, that they don't offer a tour the next day. Openroadtours was my next try, but they didn't had any free seat anymore. I've got a little bit desperate. So I called American Dream Tours next and was lucky. After telling, that I will come with Amtrak the next morning and I wouldn't know if the train is right in time they offer me to reservate a seat without a credit card number:-)
Probably because it was the first station of the train at all we were seated by the attendant entering the coach, so I couldn't look for the nicest place. But it didn't matter to much, because it was already dark outside and I would be still dark when I would leave the train at 6 am in the morning. So I used the time effective for sleeping.